Advantages

Patron

A Patron with the Equipment modifier automatically pays for the character’s Cost of Living and allows the character to start off with the entirety of their starting wealth in equipment.

Rank

Different types of Rank can cost different amounts, yielding different benefits. The prices of the Ranks specified in the Organizations pages take all of the following into account.

All variant types of Rank are assumed to include two aspects at the start – a nominal hierarchical position with a title and a chain of command. This costs 2 points per level as a base cost; if a position lacks the chain of command aspect, then it costs 1/level base. A character may have some levels of Rank that are part of the Chain of Command and some that are not; represent this by a split Rank (for example, a character with 2,000 subordinates (Rank 5 in Chain of Command) but the ability to request assistance as a Rank 8 character would have Rank 5/8; if base cost for this rank is 5/level, then total cost would be 5*5 + (5-1)*(8-5) = 37 points).

Note that Resources are in comparison to the number of members in the organization – a small organization that spends lavishly on its members may have Large Resources even if the organization itself only has a few million in assets.

Variant Rank Table

Aspect

Cost/Level

Description

Small Resources

-1

Organization has little or no budget

Typical Resources

0

Organization has a normal budget

Large Resources

+1

Organization is hideously rich with an extremely large budget

Special Assets

+1

Organization is significantly more powerful than its resources would imply

Dominant/Unique

+1

Organization completely dominates or is unique at what it does

Legitimate

+2

Organization is seen as serving society

Total Control

+4

Organization completely and utterly controls society and the government; must be Dominant/Unique

Every level of Rank for an organization with Total Control automatically grants one level of Status.

Rank for an organization that is either Legitimate or Dominant/Unique provides imputed Status, depending upon the total cost of the Rank.

Imputed Status Table

Points in Rank

Imputed Status

0-9

+0

10-24

+1

25-39

+2

40-54

+3

55+

+4

Rank also provides an imputed Reputation when dealing with others inside or significantly impacted by the organization. This depends solely upon the level of Rank, not the points or the aspects used in the Rank. Use only the higher bonus of imputed Status or imputed Reputation for the situation, not both at once!

Imputed Reputation Table

Rank

Imputed Reputation

0-1

+0

2-4

+1

5-7

+2

8-9

+3

10+

+4

In general, the amount of Rank someone has depends upon the number of subordinates that they have; this does not apply in situations where the character is not within the chain of command. Rank should generally be within 1 level of the Rank suggested for the number of subordinates.

Rank Command Table

Rank

Subordinates

0

0

1

5

2

20

3

100

4

500

5

2,000

6

10,000

7

50,000

8

200,000

9

1,000,000

10

5,000,000

Benefits of Rank

Rank can provide a character benefits similar to that of a Patron or Contact – but only if he’s in good standing with his organization, has a Duty at the “9 or less” level or above, and is performing that Duty.

Assistance Table

Rank

Assistance Roll

0

3

1

5

2

7

3

9

4

10

5

11

6

12

7

13

8

14

9

14

10

15

Assistance Roll Modifiers

Modifier

Description

Charisma

Request must be made face-to-face

Smooth Operator

Request made directly to person granting it

Complementary Skill Roll

Administration when dealing with paperwork; Leadership to help entire team

Appropriate/Inappropriate Request

Up to +5 or down to -10; critical failure leads to disciplinary action

Previous Request in Same Session

-1 per previous request

Variant Rank Assistance Table

Aspect

Impact

Small Resources

x1/10 assets; -2 to assistance rolls for Assistance Price Table

Typical Resources

Aid from organization with 1,000x assets

Large Resources

x10 assets; +4 to assistance rolls for Assistance Price Table

Special Assets

Assistance includes access to special assets

Dominant/Unique

x10 assets; +2 to assistance rolls for Assistance Price Table

Total Control

x10 assets; +2 to assistance rolls for Assistance Price Table

Assistance Price Table

Modifier

Margin of Success/Failure

Cash

+5

-5

$50

+4

-4

$75

+3

-3

$150

+2

-2

$300

+1

-1

$750

+0

+0

$1,500

-1

+1

$5,000

-2

+2

$15,000

-3

+3

$50,000

-4

+4

$150,000

-5

+5

$500,000

For every x10 increase in cash, the modifier worsens another -2 and margin of success increases by +2.

If a specific level of assistance is required, use the Assistance Price Table to determine the modifier to the Assistance Roll required; if it succeeds, then the desired assistance is granted. If generic assistance is asked for, use the Margin of Success or Failure of the Assistance Roll to determine the price of that assistance, but details are up to the GM.

There are several different types of assistance that you may request; see GURPS Action 1: Heroes for more examples:

Cash: A cash grant, collected in person, delivered in one day by courier, or immediately debited to an electronic account. Amount of cash is determined by the Assistance Price Table. Multiply by 10 if the cash is for show only and will be returned.

Requisitioned Equipment/Vehicles: Equipment or vehicles may be requisitioned from the organization. These are picked up in person or delivered in 1d hours by courier. The maximum amount you can requisition at one time is based on the Assistance Price Table.

Substantial Aid: Treat the organization as a Patron for this one case. Patron assets depend upon the Rank’s aspects – see the table above. Base Patron assets are 1,000x starting wealth. Alternatively, use the Assistance Price Table to base amount of aid given based upon the price of that aid.

Information: Treat a request for information as a Contact Group with effective skill 16 plus appropriate BAD modifier and ‘Somewhat Reliable’.

Support: The organization may offer a team of specialists to help in certain tasks. This is a Team Effort – essentially a Complementary Skill with doubled bonuses. The general support skill level is that appropriate to the organization (see BAD). Administration or Leadership may be used as a complementary skill to support this team; this is an exception to the general rule of only one level of Complementary Skill usage.

Backup: NPCs at most equal to the PCs in number arrive in 1d+10 minutes (or 1d hours if outside the city); these NPCs have skills appropriate to their organization (see BAD). This can come in the form of aerial surveillance/etc – see the Assistance Price Table to determine how much equipment the NPCs bring.

Talent

Talents commonly use the ‘Alternative Benefit’ rules from GURPS Power-Ups 3: Talents; these provide some type of special bonus gained from the talent in exchange for the reaction bonus. Further, not all Talents have the same skill listing as normal; see the list below for details.

Craftsman: Armoury, Electrician, Electronic Repair, Engineer, Machinist, and Mechanic. Benefit: Success with an appropriate skill listed for this Talent lets you scrounge or improvise equipment for other skills that’s good enough to cut -1/level from the penalty for being improvised (p. B345). When rolling on the Enigmatic Device Table (pp. B478-479) or making any similar unskilled roll to figure out tech, apply +1/level instead.

Tinkerer: Electronic Repair, Armoury, Forced Entry, Lockpicking, Scrounging, and Traps. Benefit: Success with an appropriate skill listed for this Talent lets you scrounge or improvise equipment for other skills that’s good enough to cut -1/level from the penalty for being improvised (p. B345). Apply +1/level or -1/level, whichever would be more beneficial, to rolls to avoid harm from mundane mechanisms you tamper with. 5/level.

Born Copper: Body Language, Criminology, Detect Lies, Interrogation, Observation, Savoir-Faire (Police). Benefit: +1/level to Per rolls to notice clues when no skills would apply and to rolls to use Intuition.

Telecommunication

When adding multiple Telecommunication types to the same character, you may take the highest-cost base type and then add in one fifth the cost of the additional types, similar to how Alternative Abilities work. These are not counted as distinct Alternative Abilities – it is possible to use both Telecommunication types at once, and no action is required to switch between them.

The following Modifiers are available for Telecommunication:

Cellular: This is only available for Radio. You can only connect to base stations, which then transmit your signal to other receivers – similar to the way cellular telephones work. If you can not get a signal to a base station, you can not transmit at all – even if a receiver is two feet away from you. -30%.

Short Wave: Works as in the Basic Set, except it allows you to receive short-wave transmissions while underwater. These have 1/1000 the bandwidth of normal transmissions – they must either be very simple or, if you also have Digital (below), take a long time to transmit.

Digital: You can send and receive digital information, not just speech or pictures. Your telecommunication method determines your bandwidth:

Digital Telecommunication Bandwidth Table

Telecommunication Type

Bandwidth

Cable Jack

10 TB/second

Cellular Radio

1 GB/second

Radio

10 GB/second

Infrared

100 GB/second

Laser

1 TB/second

Bandwidth may be increased using the Burst enhancement. If your Bandwidth is 100 GB/second or greater, you may utilize an Immersive Interface. +50%.

New Perks

l33t

Prerequisite: Computer Programming 12+
You are incredibly fluent in hacker jargon and technical terms. When you choose, you may speak in a hacker’s cant that only others with the l33t perk can easily decipher. Others can only understand you on an IQ-3 roll.

Multi-Tasker†

You are particularly skilled at running several programs at once, as long as your hardware is capable of handling it. Each level of this perk lets you ignore -2 points of penalty for Multitasking a new specific task, the effects do not stack. You must specialize by skill.

One Handed Typer

You have perfected the art of touch-typing with one hand, you don’t need to look at the keyboard and have one hand free – you can hold a weapon, operate a peripheral, hold your soycaf, or anyother one-handed activity appropriate for the situation.

Quick Swap

You have perfected the art of swapping out running programs, switching between tasks a Free Action rather than a Ready Action.

Technical Doublespeak

Requirements: Computer Programming 12+
Your grasp of technical terms is very impressive. Any time being an expert at computers would be enough for others to accord you respect, you may substitute Computer Programming for Fast Talk or Intimidation.